What is Christmas?

To me I believe that everyone is too wrapped up in the gifts and santa that they forget about the true meaning of christmas and why we celebrate it. While people may have their own reasons I believe it is to celebrate the birth of a saviour. My saviour. Unlike any other baby, the one born that night in Bethlehem was unique in all of history. He was not created by a human father and mother. He had a heavenly pre-existence (John 1:1-3, 14) and is the Son of the Father of Heaven and Earthe. But why would God do such a thing? Why did he send down his Son to die on the cross to die for our sins? It was because he loves us. So remember this as you celebrate and remember that it's not just about the gifts but something much greater. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Disorders of the Brain

In psychology class this week we talked about seven different brain disorders: Parkinson's Disease, Savant's Syndrome, Congenital Analgia, Alzheimer's, Autism, Epilepsy, and Synethesia. Out of all these there are no cures and only medications that help with the symptoms. The one that reall intrigued me was Synethesia. Synethesia is a brain disorder where your senses are crossed with each other. For example, a synesthete (a person with synesthesia) might see the word "plane" as mint green or the number "4" as dark brown. There are also synesthetes who hear sounds in response to smell, who smell in response to touch, or who feel something in response to sight. Just about any combination of the senses is possible. Estimates for the number of people with synesthesia range from 1 in 200 to 1 in 100,000 and there are probably many people who have the condition but do not realize what it is. Studies show that three times as many women as men have synesthesia. Here is a video of synesthesia and people with this disorder.

Savant Syndrome

In class today we got in a random discusion about savant syndrome and I was curious. Savant syndrome is extremely rare, but is a condition in which people with autism, or other serious mental handicaps or major mental illness, have amazing abilities or brilliance that stand out in contrast to their overall disability.  A lot of researcheres believe that savant syndrome is caused by an injury to the left side of the brain and then the right side compensates for the loss. The abitlities show after the left brain has been damaged by any blow to the head or trauma. The first recorded case of savant syndrome was in 1789, a severely mentally handicapped named Thomas Fuller who diwas able to do lightning fast calculating. Like when he was asked how long a man had lived who was 70 years, 17 days and 12 hours old, he gave the correct answer after 90 seconds, even including the 17 leap years. And yet Fuller wasn't able to comprehend scarcely anything. Savant syndrome was first recognised by Dr. J. Langdon Down in 1887 as idiot savant. 
Later the term idiot was removed because not all cases fitted the term and was replaced with syndrome to fit all cases. 

I also came across this discusion this summer in my medical camp and we atlked about  savant who had the ability to redraw major cities after an hour helicopter ride. In this video he was able to redraw Rome after 45 minutes of looking at it from above (with very minor errors).


That's pretty amazing. Please share your thoughts and feelings.

Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney

Carl Jung came up with the theory that we all have a collective unconscious and that it is a kind of knowledge that we are all born with. Even though we may never consciously be aware of it, this collective unconscious influences all of our experiences and behaviors, especially the emotional ones. Some influences are more recognizable than others, such as deja vu or love at first sight. He also states that archetypes are contents of the collective unconscious and that it is an unlearned tendancy to experience things in a certain way. These achetypes are images that we see or think about like religion, happily everafter, and the idea of superheros. All of these are seen throught out history and throught every culture.
Alfred Adler's inferiority complex is the feeling of the lack of worthyness. He often said "We all wish to overcome difficulties. We all strive to reach a goal by the attainment of which we shall feel strong, superior, and complete." He used  the word superiortity complex which is developed when a person tries to conquer his inferiority complex. And every person had a picture in their head of their perfect self.
Karen Horney often butted heads with Freud and his concept of penis envy. She suggested that what may appear to be signs of penis envy is really justified envy of men's power in this world. She also suggested that there was a male counter-part to penis envy and she called it womb envy. She explains it as, men are driven to succeed, and to have their names live on after them, is in compensation for their inability to more directly extend themselves into the future by means of carrying, bearing, and nurturing their children.

Defense Mechanisms of Psychology

In psychology class we learned about the different defense mechanisms, created by Sigmund Freud, used instead of facing intense frustration, conflict, the feeling of unworthyness. And it made me think about all the times that i've used them, whether it was in sports when I was denying that fact that I wasn't good enough to be on varsity or when I represse those painful memories and then joke around about it or see it in dreams. Just think back to the most recent time you've used one. I bet you it was within the last year. It just shows you how awful reality can be sometimes and you can go back to the Great Depression of the 1930's and you can see how they used the same techniques to remove themselves from reality. But the thing is, is that whatever technique you use it will eventually come out and you have to face it one day.